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How to play: Crazy Eights

3/3/2014

9 Comments

 
We love Card Table's free play mode because it lets you use your virtual deck of cards however you please. But if you don't know the rules for very many card games, free play may not involve a whole lot of playing. So in a series of blog posts we are going to teach you how to play some simple card games that you can enjoy on Card Table. In the future you will be able to purchase and download sets of instructions and rules for popular games. We think these downloads will make it even easier for you to learn to play new games on Card Table.

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Crazy Eights is one of the simplest multiplayer card games to master. It is usually our fallback when we are testing Card Table. It is easy to set up and easy to play. You may recognize Crazy Eights as Uno with face cards.

You start by dealing 5 to 7 cards to each player, and then flip over the top card of the remaining deck and place it next to the deck to start the discard pile. You will probably want to triple-tap on the Card Table on the iPad to create a play point before beginning your discard pile, and then place the first card on top of the play point. That way players can play cards from their hands directly to the discard pile. (This game is why we realized we should build the play point feature!)

The objective of the game is to discard all of the cards in your hand. Players may make one of the following moves on their turn:

Legal Moves
  1. If the top card of the discard pile is not an eight, you may play any card which matches the rank or suit of the previous card (for example if the top card on the discard pile was the king of hearts you could play any king or any heart).
  2. An eight may be played on any card, and the player of the eight must nominate a suit.
  3. If an eight is on top of the pile, you must play either another eight or any card of the suit nominated by the person who played the eight.

Drawing Cards
If a player can make a legal play on their turn they must make it. If a player cannot make a legal play on their turn they must draw a card. Some allow the drawn card to be played immediately if it is a legal move. Some others allow for more than one card to be drawn, up to a fixed number. Yet others require you to keep drawing until you can make a legal play.

If during the course of the game the entire deck is drawn, you can proceed one of two ways. You can play without a deck, and players simply lose their turn when they cannot play a card. Or you can shuffle the discard pile (except for the top card, which is saved to begin the new discard pile), turn it over, and use it as the new deck. This option is super simple with Card Table. Move the top card of the discard pile to the side, hold a long press over the rest of the pile to combine them, hold one more long press on the combined pile, and select "Add to Main Deck." Voila!

How to Win & Scorekeeping
The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins the round. Scorekeeping can be done one of two ways. The simplest way is that winning a round counts as one point, and you play rounds until someone reaches a certain number of points.

A more complicated scorekeeping method is to have players accumulate points based on the cards remaining in their hands at the end of each round. There are two ways to do this, too. Players can simply earn one point per card remaining in their hand, or cards can have their own point values based on their rank. An eight is worth 50 points, face cards are worth 10, and spot cards are worth their face value (an ace is 1 point, a two is 2 points, and so on). The objective in either case is to have the fewest points at the end of the game.

Additional Gameplay Options
Change suit. Traditionally an eight can be played at any time and the player can nominate any suit. Some say that you can play an eight at any time but cannot nominate another suit - the next player must match the suit of the eight you played or play another eight. Others suggest that you can play an eight at any time, but can only nominate a different suit if the eight matches the rank or suit of the previous card.

Skip. Some play that when a queen (or some other designated rank) is played, the next player in the rotation misses a turn, and the turn passes to the following player.

Reverse direction. Some play that when an ace (or some other designated rank) is played, the direction of play reverses, becoming counter-clockwise if it had been clockwise, or vice versa.

Draw cards. Some play that when a two is played the next player must draw two cards. Another option is to have the next player draw two cards AND lose their turn. Yet another option is to have the next player either draw two cards or play another two (an eight cannot be played in this case). If several consecutive twos have been played the next player must either play another two or draw two cards for each two in the sequence. The penalty cards cannot be played in the same turn - after the penalty cards have been drawn, the turn passes to the following player, who can continue with any card of the same suit as the last two, or another two or an eight.

Thanks to Pagat.com for help with the rules.
9 Comments
But how do you setup a game
4/2/2014 10:24:35 am

Freeplay just dumps a screenfull of cards on your phone and two on the table. How do you go from that to a real game, any game.

Great technogy but needs better explanation. I've been wanting such multi-player/device games but this is the first i'd heard of and am just so frustrated with it

Reply
The Card Table
4/2/2014 04:16:34 pm

On the last screen before you start a game you configure some game options. You can select between a standard deck and a pinochle deck (more coming soon) by tapping the "Game" button. By tapping the "Game Options" button you select the number of cards to deal. You can also change the Table and Cards used.

Reply
Crazy ape
4/3/2014 07:59:52 am

Ok I will have to look for that option.. All the point that it want obvious. You made the setup so easy to connect then kind of dropped the ball. Maybe a prompt asking how many cards to deal or similar guidance for new users is appropriate. I still didn't get what the tutorial was supposed to be shaping. I was able to pass cards to the ipad but not draw them back, eg

Reply
Bakari Chavanu
4/3/2014 02:59:13 pm

Ok, I can read, I really can. But why not include image shots of your app in the above instructions? It's really not that hard. It won't cost you an extra dime.

Reply
Wood
8/15/2014 02:49:18 pm

How do you know whose turn it is?

Reply
The Card Table
8/15/2014 04:26:58 pm

As we've said in the app description, The Card Table does not keep track of turns. It's up to you to play by whatever rules you choose, just as you would with a physical deck of cards. This is why you can play *any* card game.

Reply
SoMuchPoker link
4/26/2019 12:36:13 am

Sounds like a game we want to try !

Reply
Lucy link
8/11/2022 12:22:07 am

This is good. Thank you for sharing this info. Want to hear some more in the future.

Reply
Curtis Watkins link
11/5/2022 11:11:44 am

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